3.349 lexicon of e-terms (66)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Sun, 13 Aug 89 22:48:55 EDT


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 349. Sunday, 13 Aug 1989.

Date: Sun, 13 Aug 89 14:46:09 CDT
From: "Kevin L. Cope" <ENCOPE@LSUVM>
Subject: E-Style

Natalie Maynor has drawn our attention to the novelties of e-style,
language used only in e-mail transmissions. I therefore would like to
continue her work by reporting on the discovery of an e-lexicon. The
last edition of Compuserve ONLINE MAGAZINE offers the following example of
e-discourse, all of them gleaned from conversations on chat, e-mail,
or other relay-type systems. Of special interest, I think, are the
"emoticons," by which states of mind or gestures are encoded into text.
B4: before
BRB: be right back
BTW: by the way
CLUBBER, CLUBBERETTE: e-mailers
CO: online conference
CUL8R: see your later
d/l: download
FYI: for your information
GA: go ahead (signal for other party to begin conversation in interactive
conferences)
GMTA: great minds think alike
GD&R: grinning, ducking, and running
ILY: I love you
IMHO: in my humble opinion
LOL: laughing out loud
MORF: male or female
MSG: message
OTOH: on the other hand
OIC: oh, I see
POTS: pounding on table shrieking
PROLLY: probably
PUTER: computer
REHI: hi again
ROFL: rolling on floor, laughing
RSN: real soon now
TPTB: the powers that be
u/l: upload
WAEF: when all esle fails
. . .: continued
*xxxx*: asterisks around wor indicating emphasis
_xxxx_: italicized word
ALL CAPS: capitalized words for emphasis, all capitalized message signifies
shouting.

EMOTICONS.

:-) smile
;-) smile with wink
8-) smile with glasses
8:-) glasses on forehead
B-) smile with sunglasses
:-& tongue-tied
:-( sad face
%-) staring at terminal too long
<o> or <-> wink